


the dinner table

by yo_let_me_get_a_milkyway



Category: In the Heights - Miranda/Hudes
Genre: Family Drama, POV First Person, Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24808003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yo_let_me_get_a_milkyway/pseuds/yo_let_me_get_a_milkyway
Summary: a dinner at the rosarios.
Kudos: 8





	the dinner table

I’m dreaming right now.

I pinch myself just to make sure. Sadly I can still feel the nip of my fingernails on my arm. My ego has been shortened to the vestige of it’s eloquence, the words left on the tip of my tongue. Right now, as the mother of the huddled and heartbroken Rosario family (thank you, me) is inviting me to a seat at their four chair dinner table. Somehow, a part of me knows that I don’t belong here. 

Nina is trying her best not to stare at me. She knows what’s going on, the inside of everything. What she doesn’t understand is that Vanessa was a mistake. She wouldn’t get it, because she’s young. Or maybe I’m being too boyish. She looks tired.

Kevin, or should I say sir, has his head in his hands, pinching the bridge of his nose. I would hate to narrate this man’s life. Lincoln - I cringe at the name - told me about his grandfather. He never knew the man. No one really did, except for Kevin and his mother. I wonder if he’s alright after losing his only son. 

Camila is carrying the dinner table. Not literally, but she’s smiling, a perfect facade in these trying times. It’s better than my mother ever could pull off, but I hate to compare Camila to the woman. 

“Well,” Camila begins. “I suppose there’s no rejecting the topic of this dinner.”

“Topic,” Kevin half snarls, before staring into the bowl of arroz caldo. The beautiful twist on the rice congee is another mask on the situation we’re facing here. I can’t believe I’m seeing it so up close. 

Nina is quietly sipping her porridge as Kevin and Camila stare at each other across the table. No one could actually hurt each other. It hangs in the room though.

“So, Benjamin.” Kevin places his spoon down. “Do you know what happened to let our son leave?”

Shoot. I should be speaking, but my mouth won’t move. I should be prepared, but Kevin Rosario is looking at me with something that isn’t a blank slate of nonchalance. This is madness. I wait for the onslaught that Nina will bring on me - the truth. 

Camila stops in the middle of swallowing her food. “Don’t crowd him, Kevin,” she firmly states. It occurs to me that she’s snapped as well. It doesn’t look like much, but Camila is a reserved woman. 

“I’m not crowding Benjamin,” Kevin defends. “And if I was, he’d stand up to me because he’s a man.”

“He’s only twenty four!”

“You’re babying him, Cami.”

Nina decides it’s her time to step in. I brace for impact. 

“Can we just eat dinner?” She asks, flipping the egg in her bowl. 

“This isn’t just dinner, Nina.”   


“She’s not part of this, Kevin.”

“Lincoln was my brother just as much as he was your son!”

“Well you treated him like shit!”

“You did, and that’s why he left!”

I’ve broken this family. From the second I stepped into the dispatch to hide from the cops, I broke the peace with my ugly presence. Kevin is angry, and so is Nina. Camila is trying so hard to mediate, and so is Nina. She looks just like the daughter of a Rosario. Shame on me for laying so much as a hand on her. 

My hands are sweating ungodly, and my spoon plops in my soup. Everyone’s suddenly looking at me, like I have something to add to their family’s argument. 

There’s a little memento on the fridge that catches my eye. Something familiar in this unknown habitat of a dinner table. It’s Bennett Park.

“Bennett Park?”

Oops. I realize I must’ve been speaking aloud. I stammer out, “no no no, you don’t wanna hear it,” but Camila is giving me the most painful look and I can’t let her or any of them down. 

Usnavi told me just to nod my head. “It doesn’t mean you’re denying it, but you aren’t saying anything.” I can’t nod my head, not right now. Nodding won’t fix this problem. 

“I miss him too,” I barely speak, eyes watery. No, this isn’t me crying because of Lincoln. This is all pity. The Rosarios are now taking pity on me of all people because I was his best friend. I shouldn’t be allowed this luxury. I would be anywhere else in the world but here.

“Bennett Park.” Kevin states. “I thought you two went to Highbridge?”

Now here’s where I slip up. I can’t exactly lie here, but I nod. We used to go to HIghbridge though. Shame on me for the fifth time this dinner.

“This dinner is over,” Nina tells everyone. I reach in protest, but Kevin gives me a look that says I'm not stepping one foot in her radius. Camila steps away from me, and Nina walks away from the table. Kevin makes a gesture for me to follow behind him, so I trail behind him. 

He sees me out. “You can show up tomorrow without my coffee,” he tells me. “Goodnight, Benjamin.”

I nod. “I’m sorry for your loss, sir.” 

Then, out of some profound courage, I whip out my hand. Sweaty still, hot and worried from where it’s been playing with the pen I hide in my pocket. I look up and see Kevin looking at it, as if he’s considering whether or not to shake my hand. 

He brings out his hand, and claps it next to mine, firmly but gently shaking it. “I’m sorry for yours.”

“And please,” Kevin calls out to me, and I look back to see the door slightly open with its light seeping into the night. “Call me Kevin.”

The door shuts, and I hear rather than see the kitchen lights shut off. I can’t stop thinking of the strange ways that went, and what might happen tomorrow at the dispatch, so I run back home. 

Opening up the door to my apartment, I find Usnavi on the couch, fast asleep with Netflix open. It looks like he’s been waiting for me. 

“Hey,” I gently shake him awake. “You let yourself in?”

Usnavi stirs awake, before he punches my shoulder. “Ya gotta shut your fire escape window.”

“Shaddup.”

I take my seat beside where Usnavi isn’t draping himself everywhere on my couch, and he immediately sits up. “So,” he begins. “How did tonight go?”

"Tired," I mumbled, because I gotta fake it. Mister Benjamin isn't taking any questions right now. 

I feel a small punch on my shoulder before Usnavi offers his lap. "Cmon big guy, get some rest."

As Usnavi resumes the episode of Star Trek (lord knows why he watches it), I doze off peacefully, the blue light of the screen illuminating my eyes.  _ It could've gone worse.  _

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> this is post ith workshop, so i suggest you listen to it!
> 
> lmao ill probably write more for this but! have the drabble.


End file.
